From now on, then, you must live the rest of your earthly lives controlled by God's will and not by human desires.

Do this not only when they are watching you, because you want to gain their approval; but with all your heart do what God wants, as slaves of Christ.

Do your work as slaves cheerfully, as though you served the Lord, and not merely human beings.

God wants you to be holy and completely free from sexual immorality.

be thankful in all circumstances. This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Christ Jesus.

Your conduct among the heathen should be so good that when they accuse you of being evildoers, they will have to recognize your good deeds and so praise God on the Day of his coming.

He gives hope to the poor and silences the wicked.

The righteous see this and are glad, but all the wicked are put to silence.

Use sound words that cannot be criticized, so that your enemies may be put to shame by not having anything bad to say about us.

even though in the past I spoke evil of him and persecuted and insulted him. But God was merciful to me because I did not yet have faith and so did not know what I was doing.

But these people act by instinct, like wild animals born to be captured and killed; they attack with insults anything they do not understand. They will be destroyed like wild animals,

But these people attack with insults anything they do not understand; and those things that they know by instinct, like wild animals, are the very things that destroy them.

Is this the way you should treat the LORD, you foolish, senseless people? He is your father, your Creator, he made you into a nation.

Job answered, "You are talking nonsense! When God sends us something good, we welcome it. How can we complain when he sends us trouble?" Even in all this suffering Job said nothing against God.

You cannot stand the sight of the proud; you hate all wicked people.

Leave the company of ignorant people, and live. Follow the way of knowledge."

The LORD says, "My people are stupid; they don't know me. They are like foolish children; they have no understanding. They are experts at doing what is evil, but failures at doing what is good."

"But anyone who hears these words of mine and does not obey them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

Five of them were foolish, and the other five were wise.

They know God, but they do not give him the honor that belongs to him, nor do they thank him. Instead, their thoughts have become complete nonsense, and their empty minds are filled with darkness.

You foolish Galatians! Who put a spell on you? Before your very eyes you had a clear description of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross!

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, and wrong. We were slaves to passions and pleasures of all kinds. We spent our lives in malice and envy; others hated us and we hated them.